Ridge Run At Jack’s
I went to Jack’s for the second day in a row. On Thursday I showed up late and launched
around 2:30. Some nice climbs in the
600fpm range and top of lift was over 5000’msl.
I cruised around for a couple hours and then landed at the Mifflin
County Airport after Shawn offered to pick me up. That night, I checked the weather for Friday
and plotted out a long flight over the back to Casement Airport on Lake Erie
(dream big!). It looked like there would
be clouds and top of the lift was predicted to be over 6000’. I resolved to get to the site early and be
ready to fly by 12:00 as it would take a long time to go that far. I couldn’t
sleep that night thinking about putting in some big miles. Friday dawned with a
slightly different forecast, no clouds but winds straight in at 10-15mph, lift
to 6000’, climbs around 700fpm and a solid boundary shear ratio of 7. I really wanted clouds if I was going
downwind so… OK change of plans, it looks like a ridge run day. I was the only
pilot at launch at 11:00 and was ready to go shortly after noon. Conditions were straight in at a steady
10mph. Unfortunately, no other pilots
were there yet. Bob and Cookie arrived,
followed by Joe and Karen. They threw me
off just after 1:00 and I climbed out above launch in 600fpm. I headed NE and hit a nice smooth 800fpm
thermal with bits of 900 to 4200’. Climbs never got quite that good the rest of
the day. I continued NE and the top of
the lift progressively improved as the day heated up. An hour into it I hit a
nice climb over the gap at Lewistown and topped out above 5000’ for the first
time. The going was slow as there was a tad of east
in the wind. The thermals were spaced
every 2-3 miles but I just wasn’t comfortable enough to really put the hammer
down; not having a driver put me in conservative mode as I really didn’t want
to land out and have to beg for a ride. A couple climbs took me well over the
back to my top altitude for the day at 5700’.
Jack’s is unique; the ridge is so abrupt that thermaling over the back
is easy, there are open fields everywhere and even if at ridge height you can
dive over and get out of any rotor to safe landable fields. At one point I was over 1 ½ miles back
working lift even with winds aloft at 17mph.
It took me 1:40 to get from Lewistown to the end of the ridge. At this
point the ridge drops back to the north and then continues on for another 10
miles. I chose not to go for it as it
looked too difficult to punch back upwind on the return leg. At the end of the
ridge I topped out again and headed back on a long 6 mile glide. I was down to 1000’ over the ridge scouting
potential landing fields (at this time of year they are everywhere!) when I hit
steady 700fpm up to 5000’ again. It was another 6 mile glide to the next
thermal and even though I was getting down to 1000’ over, my confidence was
going up as the sink wasn’t near as strong as earlier in the day. I crossed the
gap again (the return leg took less than an hour) at 4000’ to the next
thermal. The climbs were becoming softer
and the edges weren’t as defined. I
stopped topping out when the lift lessened and pushed back toward launch. Two
sailplanes (Rick and George) passed underneath and out front. I saw Joe
thermaling and joined him for some turns and then kept pushing to the SW. A couple
more good climbs and I was at the SW end where the Juniata river runs through
the gap at Mt Union. The ridge continues on another 13 miles to Three Springs
but it was just too late in the day for me to try it. I met up with a Sport 2 (Andy?) on the way
back and we thermaled together for a bit before I pushed on to the NE. Doug called from the LZ to report on
conditions there however I was intent on making it back to Lewistown to land at
the Mifflin County Airport again. At the
power lines I turned in my last thermal realizing that the valley was lifting
off and there was no need to circle anymore. I flew the last 6 miles with VG
full tight and the bar pushed out boating along at 3200’ (1400’ over) before
diving over the back to the airport. I
landed at 7:42 25 minutes before sunset, totally exhausted but elated to no
end. Two sailplane pilots, Rick and
George offered to take me to my car so I quickly packed up as the sun was
setting. What an awesome day, 6 hours 34
minutes, 102 miles and a lot of smiles!!!
